Inspiring the Love of Learning 💡

Today’s blog may be a little different, but I wanted to share an experience I recently had…

When working with younger children and preparing lessons it is always important to keep their interests in mind. As teachers we spend a lot of time getting to know our children and their interests for this reason. 

However, do we pay attention to our interests?

A recent experience led me to think we can inspire the love of learning in our students by showing them our love of learning too. Our class has been learning about Arctic Animals the last few weeks. Animals are always something that preschool children enjoy learning about. As I was preparing for the lessons, I was researching the animals and discovered facts that I had not known before.  These facts excited me about arctic animals and I realized that I should show the children that I am learning new things also!

Animals really are amazing creatures!  Did you know that Caribou have a big nose because there is a chamber in their nose to warm the air before it enters their lungs? Did you know Caribou communicate to keep their herd together by making clicking sounds in their leg joints? Did you know birds have a separate circulatory system for their feet in order to help them survive winter? Maybe you did, but I did not and I really enjoyed learning these things.

I shared my learning with the class and made a connection with them and their learning. Having done this, I saw a new way to start inspiring the children's’ learning. While we do need to spend the time getting to know our children and their interests and we do need to encourage learning through their interests, I also believe that taking the time to show children that I still love to learn new things can also help to inspire their learning.